On Media

Reporters manhandled by Chinese police

By HADAS GOLD

01/22/2014 12:39 PM EST

Videos posted online Wednesday show several reporters and their crews from the BBC, CNN, and Sky News all being manhandled by Chinese police as they attempt to report from outside a courthouse in Beijing where human rights activist and lawyer Xu Zhiyong is standing trial for leading protests against corruption.

According to the videos, both uniformed and plain-clothed police officers pushedthe reporters away and broke their cameras. CNN's David McKenzie and his crew were even detained and thrown into a police van, all of which was caught on video.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, The Guardian reported that its website, as well as the websites of El Pais and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, were partially blocked in China after an article written in partnership between the organizations revealed that relatives of the country's top political and military leaders are using offshore companies in the Caribbean.

Even as China grows into more of a world power, the state of media freedom there appears to be declining. The New York Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal have all had their websites blocked at some point in China in the past year after reporting on Chinese elites. Foreign journalists have had visas delayed or revoked, companies have faced pressure from the Chinese government and native Chinese journalists now have to pass an ideology course and exam in order to keep their press cards.